The amount of text that is written and made available increases all the time. However, it is not readily accessible to everyone. The goal of the research presented in this thesis was to develop a system for automatic text simplification based on dependency relations, develop a set of simplification rules for the system, and evaluate the performance of the system. The system was built on a previous tool and developments were made to ensure the that the system could perform the operations necessary for the rules included in the rule set. The rule set was developed by manual adaption of the rules to a set of training texts. The evaluation method used was a classification task with both objective measures (precision and recall) and a subjective measure (correctness). The performance of the system was compared to that of a system based on constituency relations. The results showed that the current system scored higher on both precision (96% compared to 82%) and recall (86% compared to 53%), indicating that the syntactic information dependency relations provide is sufficient to perform text simplification. Further evaluation should account for how helpful the text simplification produced by the current system is for target readers.

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The dissertation examines mainly segmental assimilatory processes of Xhosa phonology within the dependency framework. This model is a multi-faceted approach which involves hierarchical organisation of features into larger constituents known as gestures. The analysis includes an elementary historical background to the development of phonological theory with emphasis on the shift from traditional linear approaches to modern non-linear models, as well as a shift from derivational theories to representational frameworks. An exploration of the phonetics/phonology interface through the application of gestures is considered an advantage of using the dependency framework over other theories of phonology. The focus of the dissertation is the description of phonetically-motivated and morphologically-motivated Xhosa phonological processes. A brief exposition of the use of the dependency framework in non-assimilatory Xhosa phonological processes is given as a possible recommendation in the conclusion of the dissertation. / Language Education, Arts and Culture / M.A. (African Languages)

The dissertation examines mainly segmental assimilatory processes of Xhosa phonology within the dependency framework. This model is a multi-faceted approach which involves hierarchical organisation of features into larger constituents known as gestures. The analysis includes an elementary historical background to the development of phonological theory with emphasis on the shift from traditional linear approaches to modern non-linear models, as well as a shift from derivational theories to representational frameworks. An exploration of the phonetics/phonology interface through the application of gestures is considered an advantage of using the dependency framework over other theories of phonology. The focus of the dissertation is the description of phonetically-motivated and morphologically-motivated Xhosa phonological processes. A brief exposition of the use of the dependency framework in non-assimilatory Xhosa phonological processes is given as a possible recommendation in the conclusion of the dissertation. / Language Education, Arts and Culture / M.A. (African Languages)